Volkswagen released a technology-packed updated version of its top-selling Golf hatchback on Thursday to underpin efforts to restore its core brand name.
The group’s Volkswagen brand has struggled with high labor and advancement costs for years, with the need to enhance profitability magnified by the billions of euros in costs the company deals with in the aftermath of the emissions-cheating scandal that broke 14 months back.
While automaker and labor employers are having a hard time to settle on cost cuts and method for the group’s biggest department by sales, management intends to refresh the company brand name’s model line-up to sustain need.
Modifications brought to the seventh-generation Golf, such as a completely digital dashboard and gesture control technology for the details and entertainment system, are developed to enhance the competitiveness of the design until the arrival of a fully revamped Golf in 2019.
“The Golf represents the essence of the brand better than any other model,” Herbert Diess, Volkswagen’s brand president, informed Reuters. “That’s why we constantly invest in the technology and improvements of this core product.”
Worldwide sales have actually topped 33 million since the Golf initially went into production in 1974. About 2,000 are still being developed each day at Wolfsburg, assisting to secure the jobs of the bulk of the plant’s production workforce.
Yet the upgraded Golf, due to hit European car dealers in February, deals with a tough fight for purchasers.
Research business IHS Automotive expects Golf sales to plunge 14 percent to 753,110 automobiles in 2019 from an estimated 873,033 this year. Sales of Toyota’s Corolla design are forecast by IHS to drop 3.3 percent to 1.15 million automobiles while the Ford is expected to chalk up a hefty 38 percent increase to 1.01 million automobiles.
